BENGALURU: While students of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB), were eager to get back to usual classes as networking remains a crucial component for Management education, newly-appointed director of the institute, Rishikesh T Krishnan, said the institute is making efforts to promote social connection and learning online.
“We would love to have our students back on campus. But, this will happen when the government announces that it is safe to do so,” he said. He was responding to TNIE’s queries over e-mail. Krishnan explained the short, medium, and longterm changes planned at the institute in terms of operation and syllabus. In the short-term changes, he said, IIMB’s priority is to offer the best possible educational experience through online classes.
“We have made special efforts to upgrade our digital education infrastructure and digital teaching skills of our faculty. Classes are progressing smoothly,” he added. Explaining the medium-term changes, he said, the institute needs to blend the asynchronous courses designed for highly successful MOOC platforms (free online courses available for anyone to enroll), with synchronous learning on digital platforms to offer integrated digital learning experiences.
As far as curriculum is concerned, he added, “Just last year while teaching my Strategy course, we discussed case studies on the airline industry and Airbnb. We never imagined that the airline and hospitality industries would be in such dire straits just six months later.” Krishnan said issues related to supply chain management, contingency planning, employee health and safety, and business continuity management have come to the fore.